Murder - Crimes - History - Bootle and North Liverpool

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bob. b
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fatboyjoe90
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Reprieve For Throat Cutting Mother
A young mother who cut her son's throat after being left on her own with him, was sentenced to death but then reprieved.

In 1940 Ruth Jones lived with her eighteen month old son Peter at Barlow Street in Kirkdale. A man was living with them who was not Peter's father and when that relationship ran into difficulty and he left, she began to worry how things would turn out.
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On the morning of 25th April Ruth, who was 24 years old, went into Peter's bedroom where he was still asleep in his cot and cut his throat with a razor. She then tried to do the same to herself before going to a relative's house nearby, telling them what had happened. When the police arrived, Ruth told detectives that she intended to do away with herself as well. She appeared at the police court that afternoon and was remanded in custody for two weeks, when she was committed for trial at the assizes.

When Ruth appeared at the Liverpool assizes on 10th June her hearing lasted only a minute. In barely audible tones she pleaded guilty and after Justice Wrottesley checked with her counsel that she understood the implications of this plea, he passed the death sentence. Ruth stood motionless in the dock and walked firmly towards the cells flanked by two warders. just four days later, the Home Secretary recommended a reprieve and her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
Cheers Joe.
Shelagh
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Another gruesome horrible murder of a little one..the mother was reprieved, so at least she had the rest of her life to contemplate on such an evil murder!
Shelagh K!
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efc46
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Very sad tale Joe
Davey Rowlands Bootle
bob. b
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That was sad poor little lad
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks for your comments Shelagh,Davey, and Bob. I was a bit upset when I first read it, it’s so sad.
Cheers Joe.
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Man Buries Hatchet Into Wife's Head
In 1897 Thomas Lloyd was hanged after an apparent confession to the murder of his wife, saying that he would swing for her.
55 year old boilermaker Thomas lived with his wife, 52 year old Julia in a house shared with other families in Tillard Street, which was off Fountains Road in Kirkdale. It was a stormy marriage, with frequent alcohol fuelled rows and it was one of these that led to the tragic events that saw both of them end up dead.

Image Fountains Road

In June 1897 Thomas left their home for several days but on the 19th he plucked up the courage, after downing several pints, to ask Julia to take him back. She relented but the following morning Julia was found by a neighbour lying in a pool of blood with serious blows to her head and was taken to the Stanley Hospital.
Thomas remained on the run for nearly a week and was picked up by police on 24th June, initially telling the officer, 'I did it, I'll swing like a man.' However on being charged with attempted murder he told detectives at Westminster Road Bridewell that nobody saw him strike her. After Julia died in Stanley Hospital of a haemorrhage two days later Thomas was then charged with murder. There was a further tragedy prior to the inquest which took place on 1st July when police officers attended the property to summons two females. They were found in bed, one of them having lain over her baby daughter causing her to suffocate to death.
Thomas was tried at the next Liverpool Assizes on 30th July. Other residents of Tillard Street told how they had heard drunken rows coming from the Lloyds' room on 19th June, with Thomas having been heard to shout 'I will kill you and the other too.' Thomas had also been seen walking around with a hatchet and soon afterwards shout 'I will cut your head off.'

Image Justice Bruce.


Thomas's counsel argued that he was provoked into the crime by Julia's bad temper and asked for a verdict of manslaughter. However the judge directed that the jury could only find him either guilty or not guilty of murder. The jury returned a guilty verdict after just twenty minutes and he was sentenced to death by Justice Bruce (Above), who called it a savage attack. There was some sympathy for Thomas and over 9,000 signatures were collected in a petition that was handed to the Home Secretary on 14th August. Despite this a reprieve was refused and Thomas was hanged at Walton on 18th August.
Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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Knowsley Hall Shootings
Two stately home employees were shot dead by a work colleague in a tragic incident in one autumn evening in 1952 Knowsley Hall, on the eastern fringe of Liverpool and home to the earls of Derby for many centuries, cannot have witnessed more horrific events than those of 9th October 1952.

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At 8.15pm that evening 19 year old Harold Winstanley, a trainee footman who had been discharged from the army due to tuberculosis, entered the smoke room and shot Lady Derby in the neck. While she 'played dead' Winstanley turned the gun on butler Walter Stallard and under-butler Douglas Stuart, who had been attracted by the commotion.

After moving to the inner hallway, a frenzied Winstanley then shot and wounded valet William Sullivan and housekeeper Mrs Turley in the hand and leg respectively. Miss Doxford, Lady Derby's maid managed to slip away from the scene and call the police, after Winstanley had casually told her that he had shot Lady Derby but hadn't meant to hurt her.
Winstanley then left the hall, drank a pint of beer in the Coppul House pub and then realised his plight was useless. He took a bus to Liverpool city centre and dialled 999 at 11.42pm to give himself up, expressing surprise when he was told that Lady Derby had survived.

On 14th October the two victims were buried in adjoining graves at the Church of St Mary in Knowsley Village. Three days later Winstanley appeared at Prescot Magistrates Court where he was defended by a young Rex Makin, who urged the press to 'stifle their wrong conclusions and suppositions until the facts are known.'

There was little doubt that Winstanley had carried out the shootings and the task of the defence counsel Rose Heilbron at his trial in Manchester on 16th December was to prove that he was insane at the time of the killings. Evidence was heard that his mother had a history of psychiatric problems and fellow staff members told how he had always been pleasant to work with. they said that on the fatal night he was acting normally and in a good mood when he enjoyed a meal with them at 5pm, but by he time of he shootings was white and wild eyed.

Dr. Francis Brisby, Senior Medical Officer at Walton Prison described how Winstanley spoke of the shootings as if he'd witnessed them, rather than carried them out. It was Dr. Brisby's opinion that he was suffering schizophrenia and gross hysteria at the time, not being able to tell right from wrong. The jury returned a verdict of 'guilty but insane' and Winstanley was detained indefinitely at Broadmoor.
Cheers Joe.
Shelagh
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Another murder involving the spouse.. nearly always the husband who is doing the murdering, this crime was so brutal, Thomas Lloyd whacking his poor wife over the head with a hatchet, and yet this madman got the sympathy of nine thousand people, a petition was handed in to the Home Secretary, but no reprieve given.. Strange how the other two females living at the address were later found dead..one just a baby who'd been smothered by the mother, God knows what went on in that house in Tillard Street!!
The next two murders committed by a teenager at Knowsley Hall, sounds like something from an Agatha Christie novel...the murderer was shooting at anyone for no apparent reason, doctor at Walton prison diagnosed schizophrenia, seems the boy was unbalanced - didn't stop him getting hold of a gun though!!
Thanks again Joe for all the local murders, had no idea there were so many!!
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fatboyjoe90
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Shelagh, thank you so much for your in-depth reply, I really appreciate it. :wink: :D :D
Cheers Joe.
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Old Curiosity Shop Murder

The slaying of a defenceless 82 year old man in the quiet suburb of Aintree attracted national headlines in 1953.
Retired tailor George Walker owned a Victorian detached house at 98 Warbreck Moor, the ground floor of which he used as a bric-a-brac shop. It was known locally as the Old Curiosity Image Shop.

On 9th January 1953 Walker allowed 20 year old unemployed labourer John Todd to work unsupervised on a grandfather clock. Walker's sister Mary was suspicious of Todd, who had a knife dangling from a sheath attached to his waistband.



The following Wednesday afternoon (14th January) Todd killed Walker by repeatedly striking him with an axe, which the old man used for breaking coal. He then took Walker's silver pocket watch and left the premises, his crepe shoes leaving a trail of bloody footprints.

The alarm was not raised for almost 24 hours, when one of Walker's dogs barked at the home of a Marion Owen, a woman who lived in the next street. The police were called and on breaking into the property, his body was found in the hallway.



Walker's sister gave a description of Todd and this was confirmed by two boys who had called at the shop on the day before the murder, to be told by Todd to come back the next day. On the orders of his mother who was completely unaware at the time, Todd himself gave a statement to police after an appeal for anyone who had visited the shop recently to come forward, telling how he had bought a gramophone there.
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Todd, who lived in Roxburgh Street in Walton, was arrested on 19th January after his girlfriend Iris Tucker read an account of the murder in a newspaper. On seeing the description of the man wanted for questioning -Todd had a pointed nose and a wart to the side of his left eye- she gave a statement to the police. The young man was charged with murder and appeared before magistrates the next day, the same day as George Walker's burial in Everton cemetery.

At the trial, Todd was defended by Rose Heilbron and claimed that Walker had fell against him with a bloody nose and that the silver watch was his own. When shown a photograph of the corpse, Todd tried to say that the mess had happened after he had left the property. After being found guilty on 9th April, Todd was sentenced to death by Justice Cassels who told him 'You cruelly and brutally battered that man to death.'

He was hanged on 19th May 1953, the Home Secretary refusing calls from his defence team for an enquiry into the sanity of a man who prior to this occurrence had not been convicted of any criminal offences.
Cheers Joe.
Shelagh
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Thanks Joe,, it does make you wonder though, if hanging was such a deterrent in those days, why were so many murders committed?
The old curiosity shop murder, I'd already heard of, because a friend who'd been on a local history course was telling me about it..the course was run by radio presenter "Frank Carlisle" and the students visited many gruesome murder spots around Liverpool, this was one of them.. she seemed to think that there was an element of doubt surrounding the murder, and that John Todd may have been innocent!!
But going by the evidence shown here, it doesn't look that way at all!
Defence lawyer Rose Heilbron, apparently was so upset by the verdict, that she never spoke of the case again!!
lynne99
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That is horrific. I hope he was guilty, as if he wasn't , then that is 2 wasted lives. So sad
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks for your comments Shelagh, and Lynne.

I remember Vincent Burke, telling that story on Radio Merseyside quite a few years ago. He had one those deep voices that made you listen to what he was saying. He put you at the crime scene. :wink:
Cheers Joe.
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Woman's Prophecy of Husbands Execution

In 1863 a woman told her husband he would be the next person to be hanged at Kirkdale and she ended up being right after he brutally battered her to death.

51 year old shoemaker John Hughes and his wife Mary lived unhappily together in Great Homer Street where Mary ran a grocers shop, the profits of which funded her husband’s intemperate habits as he rarely put his trade to good use. On 23rd April Hughes went to Kirkdale gaol to witness the execution of two men who had killed a woman near Blackburn and was prophetically told by his wife that if he carried on the way he was going, he would be up there next. Mary was a sober industrious woman and her friends knew how badly she was being treated by her husband.

On the evening of Sunday 26th April Hughes asked Mary for money for drink, striking her when she refused and saying again that he’d be hung for her. The following night they argued again and he pushed her before going out to a pub in Scotland Road. Mary went along there at midnight with her shop servant, 12 year old Elizabeth White, who persuaded him to return home. Being too afraid to go to bed with him, Mary stayed up all night and when Hughes woke at 5am, he demanded more drink and Elizabeth got him some whisky.

A few hours later Hughes got up as Mary went to bed. When she told him she had no money he hit her with his fist, causing her to fall out of bed onto the floor. He then put on his boots and jumped on top of her several times and kicked her until she was unable to move. Hughes then left her lying on the floor and eventually Elizabeth plucked up the courage to ask for help from a neighbour, Mrs Jones. Mary told her what had happened and a doctor was called, Hughes denying to him that any assault had taken place. As a consequence of the injuries the police were called and Hughes brazenly sat on a chair and joked that she would be alright if she was just given another pint.

Hughes was arrested and initially charged with carrying out a murderous assault, being remanded for seven days. Mary remained in a paralysed state and died on the evening of 30th April. A post mortem revealed that part of her vertebrae had fractured, causing pressure on the spinal cord and paralysis and death was a direct result of her injuries. The coroners inquest returned a verdict of manslaughter but the police were happy to persist with a murder charge and Hughes was committed to the Assizes.

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On 19th August Hughes appeared before Mr Justice Blackburn, with evidence being given by Elizabeth, Mrs Jones and another neighbour Mrs Halpin in respect of what happened between 26th and 28th April, as well as the marriage in general. The surgeon who had attended said that given the way in which Mary was lying, the injuries sustained could not possibly have been caused as a result of a fall. Hughes’s defence counsel had a tough job to do and the best they could come up with was that he was drinking solidly for three weeks prior so was too drunk to understand the consequences of his violence, therefore a manslaughter verdict was more appropriate.

In summing up, the judge said that drunkenness was not an excuse and the charge could only come down to manslaughter if Hughes was so drunk that he did not even know harm could be caused by his actions. The jury deliberated for just a few minutes before asking some clarifications as to the injuries. After just a few more minutes a guilty verdict was returned and Hughes declined to comment before sentence was passed. Justice Blackburn was brutal with his words, telling him that ‘it is absolutely necessary for the ends of justice that wives should be protected from the violence of their husbands and now all I have to do is pass upon you the sentence which the law requires.

After the death sentence was passed Hughes fainted and had to be carried from the dock to the cells by court officials. He was was one of four prisoners hanged in front of a crowd of 100,000 at Kirkdale on 12th September 1863.
Cheers Joe.
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efc46
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keep em coming Joe
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks for that Davey. :wink:
Cheers Joe.
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Vauxhall Poisoners

In 1884 two sisters made their way to the gallows after taking four lives by administering arsenic and then claiming insurance payouts, with more recent research having discovered that they may well have been part of a syndicate that took many more lives.

In 1880 Catherine Flannagan and Margaret Higgins, both Irish widows, lived in Skirving Street. The others in the house were Catherine's 22 year old son John Flannagan, lodger Patrick Jennings and his 16 year old daughter Margaret, as well as another lodger Thomas Higgins and his 8 year old daughter Mary. In December of that year John Flannagan died, apparently of consumption and his mother collected over £71 insurance money.
A year after John's death, Margaret had married Thomas Higgins and by November 1882 young Mary had died, having been insured for £22. Within two months Margaret Jennings was dead and again insurance money was collected. On each occasion the sisters had waited until the victim was already ill before administering the fatal dose, making it easier to get a doctor to issue a death certificate.

After these three deaths the sisters moved, so as not to arouse any further suspicion, to 105 Latimer Street. No deaths occurred there and in September 1883 they moved to 27 Ascot Street, where Thomas Higgins was selected as the next victim. He was insured for nearly £100, but an attempt to take out a policy for an extra £50 failed when a drunken Thomas refused to undergo a medical examination, a fact he probably told to his brother Patrick.

After Thomas' death on 2nd October 1883, Patrick visited a number of insurance societies and found that the money had already been drawn. He approached the doctor, and they went to the coroner with their suspicions. The funeral was stopped so a post mortem could take place and Higgins was arrested. Flannagan fled the house but was taken into custody a few days later.
Both were charged on 16th October after arsenic was found in Thomas Higgins' corpse. The three other victims were exhumed and traces of arsenic found in each. After a three day trial, the sisters were found guilty in 40 minutes and sentenced to death. They were hanged at Kirkdale Gaol on 3rd March 1884.

In 2003 Angela Brabin published a book called The Black Widows of Liverpool, which carried out further investigation into the killings. She uncovered evidence that suggested many more may have met the same fate and that although Flannagan and Higgins may have administered the poison, many more stood to profit from their deeds.


Catherine Flannagan and Margaret Higgins.
Image Image
Cheers Joe.
bob. b
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Joe Keep them coming thanks Bob
Shelagh
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Thanks Joe for all historic murder reports.. wouldn't know what to make of some of them,,
The poor woman, Mary Hughes, stuck with that drunken violent murderer..
What an existence it must have been back then in the 1800s!!
The next one, the Flannagan sisters, read about this one a while ago in the echo,, couldn't believe the lengths these two were prepared to go to, in order to get their hands on the insurance money. Imagine being a lodger in that house :cry:
Shelagh K!
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks for your replies Bob, and Shelagh i certainly wouldn't have liked, to have been around in the 1880s.I wonder how people ever reached it to old age back then. :cry:
Cheers Joe.
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Keep them coming Joe I really enjoy them thanks :D
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Public Execution of a Spanish Sailor

In 1863 in Old Hall Street a brutal murder took place that led to Spaniard Jose Maria Alvarez being hanged at Kirkdale.
Jose Maria Alvarez was a 22-year-old cook from Cadiz serving on the Spanish ship Pepita, which berthed in Victoria Dock in May 1863. Alvarez would often have meals at a boarding house in Lancelot's Hey run by a Spanish couple, Mr. and Mrs. Burgas, but he found his compatriots would not offer him any help on the night he committed his murder.
On 12th May at about 915pm Alvarez was walking down Old Hall Street when a man named Henry Cohen accidentally brushed against him. Cohen turned around to apologise only for Alvarez to take out a dagger and stab him twice, once in the breast and once in the backside before running to the other side of the road. As Cohen’s friend John Howell helped him another man who was with them, James Harrison, crossed the road to try and restrain Alvarez. When he managed to catch him and get hold of the Spaniard’s collar, Alvarez stabbed him in the belly. Alvarez made off into Fazakerely Street, wiping his dagger on a shocked female’s apron. He was followed into Lancelots Hey but disappeared from view, it later transpiring that he had gone into the boarding house. Meanwhile, Harrison was treated in a bakers shop and then taken with Cohen to the Northern Hospital. Harrison was alive but unable to speak and he died a short time afterwards, his liver having been pierced.
Alvarez told the boarding house keepers that he had been fighting with three Englishman in the street but didn’t say he had used a knife. Mr. Burgas told him he did not want any trouble there and he should leave, so ten minutes later he did so after changing, saying he would spend the night with a woman. He then went to the house of Ann Robinson in Pennington Street, where he was arrested by Constable McAuley the following morning. After being arrested Alvarez claimed he had been in a coffee house for six hours, but Mr. and Mrs. Burgas confirmed that he had eaten supper at their boarding house and he had only gone out about 630pm. They also handed over to police the clothes Alvarez had been wearing before changing and the blood stained apron.
At the trial, the lady whose apron was used to wipe the knife confirmed it was Alvarez who had done it and that she had seen the stabbing. Another female said she had been knocked into by Alvarez about fifteen minutes before it took place and he appeared in an agitated state then. Others stated that they saw arguments take place, but no fighting and it was only Alvarez who had a weapon. Cohen, who had now recovered, swore that he was sober when the incident took place and there was plenty of room on the pavement for six men to pass, let alone four. In cross-examination, he admitted he had been arrested about a month earlier for fighting in a pub in Chester. He said this was over a payment that had not been made to him for his work as a photographer.
Alvarez was defended by Charles Russell, who drew the jury’s attentions to some contradictions in the witnesses descriptions of the offender, in that some said he had a blue shirt on, others saying it was blue and white striped. He said there were also issues over a scar on Alvarez’s cheek and that Cohen and Howell had not told the full story about what was said after the initial jostling. With respect to the evidence of Mr. Burgas, he explained this away by saying he could be recalling another incident involving Alvarez, not this particular one. Russell opted not to say anything about the bloodstained apron that Burgas had handed to the police.
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In summing up, Justice Blackburn told the jury that a manslaughter verdict could only be reached if they were satisfied that Alvarez felt under sufficient danger. If they believed that he was not provoked, and carried out they act with an implement knowing it could cause grievous bodily harm, then they would have to return a verdict of murder. The jury took 35 minutes to find Alvarez guilty of murder, with a strong recommendation for mercy on the grounds of his lack of knowledge of the English language. The death sentence was passed and translated to Alvarez by the Spanish consul. He replied that he had nothing to say except that it was not him who had carried out the killing.
The recommendation was not upheld and Alvarez was one of four men hanged in public at Kirkdale on 14th September, with a crowd estimated at 100,000 in attendance. the Spaniard bowed to the crowd before shaking hands with the executioner Calcraft (left). A fifth death then occurred when a platelayer who was trying to keep crowds off the railway line at Sandhills was run over and killed by a passing engine.
Cheers Joe.
bob. b
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Thanks Joe interesting keep them coming regards bob
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks for your comments Lily, and Bob. :wink:
Cheers Joe.
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Drunken Stabbing of a Son in Law

In 1901, a man who killed his son in law during a drunken fight was convicted of manslaughter and told by the judge that his crime was 'as near as to murder as could be.'

Patrick Finnegan, a 47-year-old labourer, lived with his wife in Back Portland Street, off Scotland Road. His daughter was married to a marine fireman named William Carr and they lived on Portland Street, the two houses being separated from each other only by a yard.

On the evening of Saturday 23rd March that year Carr returned home drunk and then went into the yard towards his parents in law's house looking for his wife. A quarrel broke out between the two men leading to Finnegan having cuts to his face and he went off in search of a policeman.

An officer was located in Limekiln Lane and brought back to Back Portland Street, where Carr was talking to Finnegan's wife. The policeman persuaded Carr to return to his own home then took Finnegan to a dispensary for some treatment to his face wound. After this, he went to the police and demanded that Carr is arrested, but was sent on his way.

At around quarter to one in the morning, Finnegan and his wife knocked on Carr's door and were let in by a lodger called Mary Uriel. Finnegan went upstairs to see Carr leaving his wife downstairs talking to the lodger, then soon afterwards the couple left. They were soon joined by their daughter Mrs Carr, who had been too afraid to return home to her husband and had gone to sleep on a step in Portland Street before being woken by a passing policeman.

At around 5am Mary heard moaning noises coming from Carr's bedroom which was directly above hers. She went to the Finnegans for help and Mrs Carr returned with her, finding her husband on the landing with a wound on his neck. The bedclothes were bloodsoaked and there was a trail of blood leading to where he had fallen. He was rushed to the Northern Hospital but pronounced dead on arrival, an artery having been cut.

On being questioned Finnegan claimed he had only gone to Carr's bedroom to look for his daughter, but he was unable to explain the blood on his own clothes or the bloodstained knife found in his own house.
After being charged with murder Finnegan appeared at the assizes on 10th May. His defence counsel Mr Madden said that if Carr had been arrested for drunkenness earlier on then the tragedy had not occurred. Saying that 'all parties were deprived of their reason' Mr Madden maintained that Finnegan had initially only gone to Carr's room to look for his daughter.

It took the jury ten minutes to find Finnegan guilty of manslaughter. In passing a sentence of twenty years penal servitude, Justice Wills said that the case was as near to murder as manslaughter could be.
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Cheers Joe.
bob. b
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Joe, Fantastic stuff l really enjoy this post keep them coming have got my brother looking at them also. Regards Bob. b
lynne99
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Thanks Joe. Make my day. first thing I look for when I log on. Thanks Again
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks for your comments Bob, and Lynne they are much appreciated.
Cheers Joe.
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Teenager Kicked to Death at Christmas
A thirteen year old youth who was brutally set upon by four others died from his injuries on Christmas morning, leading to his attackers being jailed for between ten and twelve years.
At around 9pm on 24th December 1883, Michael Burns was walking with his friend George Fox down Commercial Road when they saw two youths fighting. One of those watching was sixteen year old Charles Vaughan, who told another youth to go to Stanley Road and get some fellow members of his 'Pad Gang' to come over.

Three members of the Pad Gang, eighteen year old William Price and Isaac Hadfield, as well as fifteen year old John McComb, went and asked what was wrong. Vaughan then replied 'This is the one who is getting at me' and head butted a lad called John Murray. When Murray ran away Vaughan then crossed the road to where Burns was standing, grabbed his coat and butted him. When Burns fell to the ground Price, Hadfield and McComb joined in the assault and kicked him in the body.

Image Reading Street in the 1920s
Burns managed to get up and run off, but he was caught by the others in Reading Street and again knocked to the ground and kicked him in the head. Two men passing by intervened and the four assailants ran off while Burns had to crawl on his hands and knees to his Reading Street home. He went to bed, where he was regularly checked by his mother who didn't think his injuries were serious enough to call a doctor, but at 7am on Christmas Day, she found him dead.

The four youths involved had been named by Burns and were soon taken into custody. A post mortem was carried out by Dr. Costine who found that death was caused by compression of the brain due to ruptured blood vessels which were as a result of external violence. The coroner's inquest returned a verdict of manslaughter , leading to Vaughan and his associates being committed to the assizes.

On 11th February 1884, all four were found guilty of manslaughter. Prior to passing sentence Justice Butt said that the four youths were fortunate not to have been convicted of murder as the manslaughter for which they had been indicted were 'a very bad kind.' Vaughan, who a few months earlier had been before the courts for wounding, was sentenced to twelve years penal servitude as he was the ringleader while the other three were given ten years.
Image Reading Street as it is today.
Cheers Joe.
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Tragedy of Walton Doctor And His Son
In 1895 the son of a Walton doctor was killed by a member of his staff, a death which was followed a few months later by that of the doctor himself.
Dr. Richard Ireland, who was a visiting practitioner to the Liverpool Workhouse in Brownlow Hill,
Image Liverpool Workhouse.

lived at 2 Harlech Street off County Road Image
along with his wife and two sons. His assistant Patrick O'Callaghan also lived with them.


On 3rd August, Dr. Ireland went away for a week, meaning not much work got done by O'Callaghan who often spent days drinking, sometimes with Mrs. Ireland. On Thursday 8th August, Mrs. Ireland didn't even get dressed and had a friend, Mrs. Sayers around and drank for most of the day, whilst O'Callaghan drank alone. In the evening, William was sent to bed and a row took place between O'Callaghan and Mrs. Ireland, who refused to share her drink with him.

O'Callaghan was so overcome with rage that around 1am he went to the bedroom and dragged her 11-year-old son William out of bed, beat him with his fists and then threw him with such force against a chair that his stomach was ripped open. William managed to get under the bed for safety and Annie Washington, a 13-year-old servant girl who sometimes stayed at the house, ran outside to get help after being woken by the screams.

When Police Constable Deacon went into the bedroom, he asked William to come out but he said his intestines were hanging out and after a doctor was called he was taken by horse ambulance to Bootle Hospital where he remained in a critical condition. O'Callaghan was arrested and charged with grievous bodily harm. He appeared at Islington Magistrates on the morning of Saturday 10th August and remanded in custody for a week, with a police inspector stating that it was doubtful that William would make a recovery.

William failed to pull through, dying the following Wednesday after peritonitis had set in. At his inquest, held at Bootle police station on Friday 16th August, a verdict of wilful murder was returned and O'Callaghan was committed for trial at the next Assizes. William was buried at Anfield Cemetery on Sunday, the funeral cortege being followed by a large crowd, some of whom expressed hostility to Mrs. Ireland for being in a drunken state when her son was killed.

At O'Callaghan's trial in on 28th November, he maintained that he had not intended to cause any harm to William, but instead to simply to frighten Mrs. Ireland. A surgeon from the Bootle Hospital said that death hadn't resulted directly from the injuries, but instead from the peritonitis and exhaustion which had been brought on by them. The day after the outrage, William had been able to give a statement to the police and this was read out in court, describing how he had been 'hammered' by O'Callaghan who kept catching up with him as he tried to get away.

O'Callaghan managed to avoid a conviction for murder on the basis he was so drunk at the time and hadn't used any implements when hitting William. He was instead found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years penal servitude. In a sad postscript to the tragedy, Dr. Ireland died of typhoid at the age of 58 the following month.
Cheers Joe.
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filsgreen
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The good old days eh Joe? Thanks for posting. Has anyone noticed the theme running through most of these atrocities? Alcohol.

Phil
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efc46
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I read them all with great interest we have a very sad history in liverpool keep em comin Joe
Davey Rowlands Bootle
lynne99
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Thanks Joe. We haven't got time to drink all day, hey. Perhaps all this work is good for us. :D
nicolas
Posts: 196
Joined: Mon Nov 04, 2013 8:10 am

These stories are so very sad Joe, can I add one, this one is a bit nearer home -

IT was a bleak November evening in 1940 when 15-year-old Mary Hagan was sent out by her father to buy him a copy of that night’s ECHO and some cigarettes. The last time she was seen alive was when she closed the door of her Brookside Avenue Seaforth home and said goodbye.

Though Liverpool had yet to be targeted by the Nazi bombers that flew over Britain at night, the streetlights were extinguished early evening plunging the city into darkness to make it less of a target.

And it was in the midst of this darkness that bespectacled Mary was snatched, raped and brutally murdered.

When she failed to return home her father became worried and alerted the authorities.

A search of the area brought about an horrific discovery. There dumped in a blockhouse by the side of the railway line was Mary’s mutilated body.

The paper of the day reported “she had been killed in circumstances of unusual brutality”.

The crime was discovered on the fringe of the Liverpool/Lancashire border and the Lancashire Constabulary took over the investigation.

Clues in the dank, murky blockhouse were hard to find. Superintendent Gregson, then head of Lancashire’s CID, wasted no time calling in the services of his specialist Forensic Science Lab from Preston.

The muddied floor was littered with old cigarette butts, chocolate wrappers, bits of papers and a variety of footprints, both male and female. Water lay inches deep in parts and fire pumps were called in to dry the area out.

Close to where Mary’s body was found the impression of a man’s boot heel seemed fresh and clean compared to the many others around it and the forensic team took a plaster cast of the print.

A dirty handkerchief lay sodden on the floor bearing the name Rimmer and an initial. There were matchsticks, chunks of tobacco, a dirty bandage and a piece of gauze.

All of these were painstakingly removed from the site and taken back to the lab.

Within days the massive police operation managed to eliminate all Rimmers in the local area. But when the trail seemed to be turning cold the scientists hit the jackpot.

The tiny scrap of bandage found at the murder scene contained traces of zinc ointment and disinfectant – substances unique to Army medical kits. It was possible the gauze was also from a field medical kit and as the pieces fell into place the plastercast footprint was deemed to have a distinctly military look.

Although there were thousands of troops stationed in the North West a waitress came forward to say a soldier with a cut on his face had asked her if he could clean up in her house claiming to have been in a fight.

A month earlier a cyclist called Anne McVittie was robbed by a soldier on a canal bank a mile from where Mary was killed – and the descriptions were similar.

Irish Guardsman Samuel Morgan, a recent deserter from a nearby barracks, fell under suspicion and matched the description of a tall young soldier seen prowling the area on a number of nights.

Morgan's sister admitted harbouring the soldier and told how she treated his injured thumb with zinc ointment. The bandage she used matched the material found at the murder scene.

Two weeks after the murder Morgan was held in London over the McVittie robbery and had a healed scar on his thumb.

His house in Seaforth was searched and a bandage cloth was found which matched that from the murder scene. Soil samples were also found on his uniform.

Witnesses put Morgan near the scene of the crime and a local landlord said he was in his pub that night sporting a bloodstained cap.

To seal his fate the boot impression taken from the blockhouse matched that of Morgan’s boot perfectly.

Morgan admitted robbing cigarettes and money from Mary but denied rape and murder. He stood trial.

Almost as soon as they had retire, the jury was back. “Guilty” was the verdict and Morgan would spend his last days in the condemned cell at Walton jail.

When he was hanged, on April 4, 1941, Morgan pleaded for a quick death. He got his final wish.
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Last edited by nicolas on Fri May 06, 2016 9:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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